GIFT-CCC 3

I. GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF LOVING

GOODNESS"
51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known
the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through
Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine
nature."[2]

52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine life
to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son.
[3] By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of
knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.

53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which
are intrinsically bound up with each other"[4] and shed light on each another. It involves
a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares
him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person
and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God
and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and
became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom God
to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.[5]

II. THE STAGES OF REVELATION

In the beginning God makes himself known

54 "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant
evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to
heavenly salvation - he manifested himself to our first parents from the very
beginning."[6] He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them
with resplendent grace and justice.

55 This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God]
buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never
ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all
those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing."[7]

Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the
power of death. . . Again and again you offered a covenant to man.[8]
 2 DV 2; cf. Eph 1:9; 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4.

3 I Tim 6:16, cf. Eph 1:4-5.

4 DV 2.

5 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 20, 2: PG 7/1, 944; cf. 3, 17, 1; 4,

12,4; 4, 21, 3.

6 DV 3; cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 1:19-20.

7 DV 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7.

8 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118.